


Stage of Fools

by AceMe



Category: Corpse Party (Video Game)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, F/M, Psychological Horror, References to Shakespeare, Shakespeare Quotations, Suicide, Suicide Notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:29:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23147773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceMe/pseuds/AceMe
Summary: Long before he knew it, he had been dead. The moment Mayu left this world, Morishige had no more reasons to live. The boy couldn’t bring himself to care, though. All he could think of was that Mayu’s spirit was trapped in that school, andthatthey couldn’t have. He had promised he would find her so that they could stay together again. If she couldn’t leave that place, Morishige would just have to die there as well, as dramatically as she did. He simply had to."When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools" (Shakespeare, King Lear)
Relationships: Morishige Sakutarou & Suzumoto Mayu, Morishige Sakutarou/Suzumoto Mayu
Kudos: 10





	Stage of Fools

**Author's Note:**

> "To be, or not to be, that is the question." - probably Morishige, after he grabbed a real skull at some point during his stay at Heavenly Host.
> 
> And this is how this fic/character study started. C'mon, if Morishige really is both a theater boy and crazy for Tenjin's corpses, he 100% did that.
> 
> Anyway, warning for canonical suicide of character and mentions of canonical violence and brutal murder. I hope you like what came out of that silly/disturbing(?) thought. :)
> 
> PS: This is the translation of a fanfic I posted a long time ago in another site. English is not my first language.
> 
> See the End Notes for references :)

Morishige dropped his cellphone on the worn wooden floor, trembling. The photo of the body smashed against the infirmary’s wall was still there, having fun with his horror. The boy was almost nervously biting his own hand at the sight.

“Shig” - The screen had said with that delicate, kind voice he used to know very well, almost as if it was a regular phone call, even though there was no signal at the school. - “Please, stop looking at my insides. It’s embarrassing.”

Shig… Only one person called him like that, which meant... 

“Mayu! No!” He shouted, to the top of his lungs, the sound almost echoing on the walls around him. Her voice, so pure and sweet, would never be able to comfort him again.

The boy's hands moved from his mouth to his dark hair. He hadn’t even noticed when tears started running down his face. All he wanted to do was scream in panic. His legs bulged, but the shock of his knees against the floor was nothing if compared to the stab he had just received in his heart.

Morishige had been looking for Mayu since he found himself in the corridors of that cursed school. He almost could see her all curled up in some corner, crying, and he coming to save her, as if he were an actual prince charming protecting his helpless princess from the evil that afflicts her, just like in one of those Grimm's famous fairytales.

He would find himself in a Shakespearian tragedy, instead.

Never before the darkness that possessed him appeared so strong - the same darkness which had made him be so fond of the corpses in that place and their post-death sufferment, in special the shattered corpse by the infirmary. The corpse that, without his knowledge, was Mayu’s, the girl he had been looking for since the beginning. Morishige hoped, since they already were trapped in that shakespearean theorem, that everything would go like in The Winter’s Tale: that Mayu, just like Hermione, would come back from the dead and run into his arms, in the role of Leontes.

Except that they were not in your usual tragedy. That scenery could only belong to a tragicomedy, Morishige thought bitterly, created by Heavenly Host’s aura only to satisfy Sachiko’s wish for a good black humour. In that moment, he knew that hell was truly empty and all the devils were there, because there was no way hell could be worse than what they were going through in that cursed place, by the hands of such cursed souls.

Morishige was an actor and, although he had only worked for Kirisagi Academy’s theater club, he would consider himself as quite experienced in this field for someone his age, having interpreted more characters than he could count in the past. However, he couldn’t say he would ever have imagined himself playing the kind of role he was, in that kind of play they were. After all, such a horrible situation could only come from somebody sick in the head playing with them, and Morishige could only be acting, because the maniac that had touched Mayu’s insides out of pleasure wasn’t him! It couldn’t be!

Against his own will, his eyes wandered back to his cellphone’s screen. The photo was still there, almost mocking him. His conscience may have been about to be completely consumed by the darkness, but Morishige was still there, inhabiting the body. He wouldn’t let their memories together be erased, or allow the school’s aura to make him forget just how much she made him happy, how depressed he was at her transference, and how they had promised to always be friends.

_How much he loved her._

Something snapped in his head.

Long before he knew it, he had been dead. The moment Mayu left this world, Morishige had no more reasons to live. The boy couldn’t bring himself to care, though. All he could think of was that Mayu’s spirit was trapped in that school, and _that_ they couldn’t have. He had promised he would find her so that they could stay together again. If she couldn’t leave that place, Morishige would just have to die there as well, as dramatically as she did. He simply had to.

With a renewed vigor he had no idea where he had got from, Morishige finally grabbed his cellphone, deleted the damned picture so that whoever found the object would not get to appreciate her corpse, and started to film. He put it on the floor, in an angle that would face directly the window. Morishige couldn’t come up with anything more dramatic than a suicide note for his own death, so he hoped this much would do.

When he finished setting it up, the boy turned around and walked towards the window, slowly. The darkness around him was almost visible, covering practically all of his body. Inside his mind, though, there were only happy thoughts, of Mayu’s shy, smiling face. She would be the last thing in Morishige’s head as he took his own life.

As he arrived at his destination, he couldn’t help but stop a little, facing the wet, earthy place where he would fall. For one moment, scenes from Romeo and Juliet played before his eyes. Romeo, believing Juliet was dead, kills himself without ever finding out the truth. Then Juliet, seeing what the boy had done, kills herself as well, so that their souls could remain together. As soon as he imagined it, though, Morishige blinked to stop that train of thought.

Although the similarities were there, he knew it was impossible. He had looked for Mayu everywhere, and the only signal that indicated she had ever been in that school in the first place was the supernatural call they had had moments before. No. Morishige couldn’t let himself hope anymore. Mayu was having a tea party with Ms. Death, and he was already too late to meet them. There was no way he would find her alive and go back to Kirisagi with her. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth, and he had been a fool for allowing himself to believe otherwise for so long.

Morishige raised his arms before letting his body’s weight drag him forward, as if he were an actor thanking the audience after a play - his invisible audience, whose emotional tears were the curtain of water droplets, falling from the clouds that formed the eternal rain. It wasn’t for nothing that all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players with their exits and entrances, playing many parts in the same drama. Morishige’s role in there, although very different from his original, was completed, and all he could do then was hope that he had been valiant enough during his life for this to be the only death he would truly have tasted in the end.

In his last seconds, Morishige swore he had seen Mayu with extended arms, smiling sadly at him, as she softened his fall and welcomed him to the world of the dead. Mixed with the sound of the rain, he could almost distinguish her sweet “Shig” leaving her lips.

The curtain comes down, marking the end of the show.

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr, if you like seeing posts about anime in general: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/a-c-schimidt
> 
> Here are the references:
> 
> A Winter's Tale: A Shakespeare's play, in which the character Leontes sends his wife, Hermione, to jail. She dies there, and he deeply regrets his orders. Years after that, she reappears and they make peace with each other.  
> "Hell is empty...": Sentence from Shakepeare's "The Tempest"  
> Romeo and Juliet: I believe it's self-explanatory :)  
> "The course of true love...": From Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"  
> "All the world's a stage...": From Shakespeare's "As You Like It"  
> "... the valiant never taste of death but once.": From Shakespeare's "Julius Caeser"
> 
> I hope you liked it :) Corpse Party needs more fics.


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